THOU SHALT WRITE WELL – THE 5 COMMUNICATION COMMANDMENTS
1. Thou shalt imitate in order to learn.
Full article here: http://batonrougebusinessjournal.com/2012/07/28/thou-shalt-write-well-the-5-communication-commandments/ Saturday, July 28, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Walter Isaacson Quotes, Steve Jobs Book Quotations
Walter Isaacson Quotes, Steve Jobs Book Quotations
Steve Jobs Quote #1. “Form follows emotion”
Steve Jobs Quote #2. “if you can't keep him interested, that's your fault.”
Steve Jobs Quote #3. “If you act like you can do something, then it will work.”
Steve Jobs Quote #4. “Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.”
Steve Jobs Quote #5. “...never let a passion for the perfect take precedence over pragmatism.”
Steve Jobs Quote #6. “One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are. (Steve Jobs)”
Steve Jobs Quote #7. “There are parts of his life and personality that are extremely messy, and that's the truth”
Steve Jobs Quote #8. “I am a fruitarian and I will only eat leaves picked by virgins in the moonlight - Steve Jobs ”
Steve Jobs Quote #9. “The best and most innovative products don't always win...(it's an) aesthetic flaw in how the universe worked”
Steve Jobs Quote #10. “Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his collegues.”
Steve Jobs Quote #11. “Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
Steve Jobs Quote #12. “Simply handing over your iPod to a friend, your blind date, or the total stranger sitting next to you on the plane opens you up like a book." (Steven Levy)”
Steve Jobs Quote #13. “I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery. (Steve Jobs)”
Steve Jobs Quote #14. “The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand,”
Steve Jobs Quote #15. “Asked about the fact that Apple's iTunes software for Windows computers was extremely popular, Jobs joked, 'It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”
Steve Jobs Quote #16. “I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize a company. The whole notion of how you build a company is fascinating." Steve Jobs”
Steve Jobs Quote #17. “I think the biggest innovations of the twenty-first century will be the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning, just like the digital one was when I was his age.”
Steve Jobs Quote #18. “The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don’t really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music.”
Steve Jobs Quote #19. “When the conventional wisdom of physics seemed to conflict with an elegant theory of his, Einstein was inclined to question that wisdom rather than his theory, often to have his stubbornness rewarded.”
Steve Jobs Quote #20. “What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.”
Steve Jobs Quote #21. “In classic Steve fashion, he would agree to something, but it would never happen,” said Lack. “He would set you up and then pull it off the table. He’s pathological, which can be useful in negotiations. And he’s a genius.”
Steve Jobs Quote #22. “On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”
Steve Jobs Quote #23. “for Steve, less is always more, simpler is always better. Therefore, if you can build a glass box with fewer elements, it’s better, it’s simpler, and it’s at the forefront of technology. That’s where Steve likes to be, in both his products and his stores.”
Steve Jobs Quote #24. “Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.”
Steve Jobs Quote #25. “the Macintosh lacked a fan, another example of Jobs’s dogmatic stubbornness. Fans, he felt, detracted from the calm of a computer. This caused many component failures and earned the Macintosh the nickname “the beige toaster,” which did not enhance its popularity.”
Steve Jobs Quote #26. “Jobs insisted that Apple focus on just two or three priorities at a time. “There is no one better at turning off the noise that is going on around him,” Cook said. “That allows him to focus on a few things and say no to many things. Few people are really good at that.”
Steve Jobs Quote #27. “Jobs had always been an extremely opinionated eater, with a tendency to instantly judge any food as either fantastic or terrible. He could taste two avocados that most mortals would find indistinguishable, and declare that one was the best avocado ever grown and the other inedible.”
Steve Jobs Quote #28. “Another time, he was playing [chess] with his equal, the Duchess of Bourbon, who made a move that inadvertently exposed her king. Ignoring the rules of the game, he promptly captured it. "Ah," said the duchess, "we do not take Kings so." Replied Franklin in a famous quip: "We do in America.”
Steve Jobs Quote #29. “He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. He put his life in my hands. So that made me do something I didn't think I could do.... If you trust him, you can do things. If he's decided that something should happen, then he's just going to make it happen. (Elizabeth Holmes)”
Steve Jobs Quote #30. “Even when he was barely conscious, his strong personality came through. At one point the pulmonologist tried to put a mask over his face when he was sedated. Jobs ripped it off and mumbled that he hated the design and refused to wear it. He ordered them to bring five different options and he would pick the one he liked.”
Steve Jobs Quote #31. “In two days he saw Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and the management of their Wall Street Journal; Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and the top executives at the New York Times; and executives at Time, Fortune, and other Time Inc. magazines. “I would love to help quality journalism,” he later said. “We can’t depend on bloggers for our news.”
Steve Jobs Quote #32. “So that’s our approach. Very simple, and we’re really shooting for Museum of Modern Art quality. The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple.” Apple’s design mantra would remain the one featured on its first brochure: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Steve Jobs Quote #33. “The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently,” he said. "The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.”
Steve Jobs Quote #34. “He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe," Joanna Hoffman said. "It's a common trait in people who are charismatic and know how to manipulate people. Knowing that he can crush you makes you feel weakened and eager for his approval, so then he can elevate you and put you on a pedestal and own you.”
Steve Jobs Quote #35. “When it came time to announce the price of the new machine, Jobs did what he would often do in product demonstrations: reel off the features, describe them as being “worth thousands and thousands of dollars,” and get the audience to imagine how expensive it really should be. Then he announced what he hoped would seem like a low price: “We’re going to be charging higher education a single price of $6,500.”
Steve Jobs Quote #36. “I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.”
Steve Jobs Quote #37. “Now he was about to launch the Macintosh, a machine that violated many of the principles of the hacker’s code: It was overpriced; it would have no slots, which meant that hobbyists could not plug in their own expansion cards or jack into the motherboard to add their own new functions; and it took special tools just to open the plastic case. It was a closed and controlled system, like something designed by Big Brother rather than by a hacker.”
Steve Jobs Quote #38. “Years later, on a Steve Jobs discussion board on the website Gawker, the following tale appeared from someone who had worked at the Whole Foods store in Palo Alto a few blocks from Jobs' home: 'I was shagging carts one afternoon when I saw this silver Mercedes parked in a handicapped spot. Steve Jobs was inside screaming at his car phone. This was right before the first iMac was unveiled and I'm pretty sure I could make out, 'Not. Fucking. Blue. Enough!!!”
Steve Jobs Quote #39. “If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, “Bye. I have to go. I’m going crazy and I’m getting out of here.” And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently. (Steve Jobs)”
Steve Jobs Quote #40. “Throughout his life, Albert Einstein would retain the intuition and the awe of a child. He never lost his sense of wonder at the magic of nature's phenomena-magnetic fields, gravity, inertia, acceleration, light beams-which grown-ups find so commonplace. He retained the ability to hold two thoughts in his mind simultaneously, to be puzzled when they conflicted, and to marvel when he could smell an underlying unity. "People like you and me never grow old," he wrote a friend later in life. "We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.”
Steve Jobs Quote #41. “What was remarkable was that associating with a computer and electronics company was the best way for a rock band to seem hip and appeal to young people. Bono later explained that not all corporate sponsorships were deals with the devil. “Let’s have a look,” he told Greg Kot, the Chicago Tribune music critic. “The ‘devil’ here is a bunch of creative minds, more creative than a lot of people in rock bands. The lead singer is Steve Jobs. These men have helped design the most beautiful art object in music culture since the electric guitar. That’s the iPod. The job of art is to chase ugliness away.”
Steve Jobs Quote #42. “In a bravura demonstration of stonewalling, righteousness, and hurt sincerity, Steve Jobs successfully took to the stage the other day to deny the problem, dismiss the criticism, and spread the blame among other smartphone makers,” Michael Wolff of newser.com wrote. “This is a level of modern marketing, corporate spin, and crisis management about which you can only ask with stupefied incredulity and awe: How do they get away with it? Or, more accurately, how does he get away with it?” Wolff attributed it to Jobs’s mesmerizing effect as “the last charismatic individual.” Other CEOs would be offering abject apologies and swallowing massive recalls, but Jobs didn’t have to. “The grim, skeletal appearance, the absolutism, the ecclesiastical bearing, the sense of his relationship with the sacred, really works, and, in this instance, allows him the privilege of magisterially deciding what is meaningful and what is trivial.”
Steve Jobs Quote #1. “Form follows emotion”
Steve Jobs Quote #2. “if you can't keep him interested, that's your fault.”
Steve Jobs Quote #3. “If you act like you can do something, then it will work.”
Steve Jobs Quote #4. “Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.”
Steve Jobs Quote #5. “...never let a passion for the perfect take precedence over pragmatism.”
Steve Jobs Quote #6. “One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are. (Steve Jobs)”
Steve Jobs Quote #7. “There are parts of his life and personality that are extremely messy, and that's the truth”
Steve Jobs Quote #8. “I am a fruitarian and I will only eat leaves picked by virgins in the moonlight - Steve Jobs ”
Steve Jobs Quote #9. “The best and most innovative products don't always win...(it's an) aesthetic flaw in how the universe worked”
Steve Jobs Quote #10. “Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his collegues.”
Steve Jobs Quote #11. “Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
Steve Jobs Quote #12. “Simply handing over your iPod to a friend, your blind date, or the total stranger sitting next to you on the plane opens you up like a book." (Steven Levy)”
Steve Jobs Quote #13. “I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery. (Steve Jobs)”
Steve Jobs Quote #14. “The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand,”
Steve Jobs Quote #15. “Asked about the fact that Apple's iTunes software for Windows computers was extremely popular, Jobs joked, 'It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”
Steve Jobs Quote #16. “I discovered that the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize a company. The whole notion of how you build a company is fascinating." Steve Jobs”
Steve Jobs Quote #17. “I think the biggest innovations of the twenty-first century will be the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning, just like the digital one was when I was his age.”
Steve Jobs Quote #18. “The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don’t really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music.”
Steve Jobs Quote #19. “When the conventional wisdom of physics seemed to conflict with an elegant theory of his, Einstein was inclined to question that wisdom rather than his theory, often to have his stubbornness rewarded.”
Steve Jobs Quote #20. “What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.”
Steve Jobs Quote #21. “In classic Steve fashion, he would agree to something, but it would never happen,” said Lack. “He would set you up and then pull it off the table. He’s pathological, which can be useful in negotiations. And he’s a genius.”
Steve Jobs Quote #22. “On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”
Steve Jobs Quote #23. “for Steve, less is always more, simpler is always better. Therefore, if you can build a glass box with fewer elements, it’s better, it’s simpler, and it’s at the forefront of technology. That’s where Steve likes to be, in both his products and his stores.”
Steve Jobs Quote #24. “Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.”
Steve Jobs Quote #25. “the Macintosh lacked a fan, another example of Jobs’s dogmatic stubbornness. Fans, he felt, detracted from the calm of a computer. This caused many component failures and earned the Macintosh the nickname “the beige toaster,” which did not enhance its popularity.”
Steve Jobs Quote #26. “Jobs insisted that Apple focus on just two or three priorities at a time. “There is no one better at turning off the noise that is going on around him,” Cook said. “That allows him to focus on a few things and say no to many things. Few people are really good at that.”
Steve Jobs Quote #27. “Jobs had always been an extremely opinionated eater, with a tendency to instantly judge any food as either fantastic or terrible. He could taste two avocados that most mortals would find indistinguishable, and declare that one was the best avocado ever grown and the other inedible.”
Steve Jobs Quote #28. “Another time, he was playing [chess] with his equal, the Duchess of Bourbon, who made a move that inadvertently exposed her king. Ignoring the rules of the game, he promptly captured it. "Ah," said the duchess, "we do not take Kings so." Replied Franklin in a famous quip: "We do in America.”
Steve Jobs Quote #29. “He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. He put his life in my hands. So that made me do something I didn't think I could do.... If you trust him, you can do things. If he's decided that something should happen, then he's just going to make it happen. (Elizabeth Holmes)”
Steve Jobs Quote #30. “Even when he was barely conscious, his strong personality came through. At one point the pulmonologist tried to put a mask over his face when he was sedated. Jobs ripped it off and mumbled that he hated the design and refused to wear it. He ordered them to bring five different options and he would pick the one he liked.”
Steve Jobs Quote #31. “In two days he saw Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and the management of their Wall Street Journal; Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and the top executives at the New York Times; and executives at Time, Fortune, and other Time Inc. magazines. “I would love to help quality journalism,” he later said. “We can’t depend on bloggers for our news.”
Steve Jobs Quote #32. “So that’s our approach. Very simple, and we’re really shooting for Museum of Modern Art quality. The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple.” Apple’s design mantra would remain the one featured on its first brochure: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Steve Jobs Quote #33. “The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently,” he said. "The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.”
Steve Jobs Quote #34. “He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe," Joanna Hoffman said. "It's a common trait in people who are charismatic and know how to manipulate people. Knowing that he can crush you makes you feel weakened and eager for his approval, so then he can elevate you and put you on a pedestal and own you.”
Steve Jobs Quote #35. “When it came time to announce the price of the new machine, Jobs did what he would often do in product demonstrations: reel off the features, describe them as being “worth thousands and thousands of dollars,” and get the audience to imagine how expensive it really should be. Then he announced what he hoped would seem like a low price: “We’re going to be charging higher education a single price of $6,500.”
Steve Jobs Quote #36. “I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.”
Steve Jobs Quote #37. “Now he was about to launch the Macintosh, a machine that violated many of the principles of the hacker’s code: It was overpriced; it would have no slots, which meant that hobbyists could not plug in their own expansion cards or jack into the motherboard to add their own new functions; and it took special tools just to open the plastic case. It was a closed and controlled system, like something designed by Big Brother rather than by a hacker.”
Steve Jobs Quote #38. “Years later, on a Steve Jobs discussion board on the website Gawker, the following tale appeared from someone who had worked at the Whole Foods store in Palo Alto a few blocks from Jobs' home: 'I was shagging carts one afternoon when I saw this silver Mercedes parked in a handicapped spot. Steve Jobs was inside screaming at his car phone. This was right before the first iMac was unveiled and I'm pretty sure I could make out, 'Not. Fucking. Blue. Enough!!!”
Steve Jobs Quote #39. “If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, “Bye. I have to go. I’m going crazy and I’m getting out of here.” And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently. (Steve Jobs)”
Steve Jobs Quote #40. “Throughout his life, Albert Einstein would retain the intuition and the awe of a child. He never lost his sense of wonder at the magic of nature's phenomena-magnetic fields, gravity, inertia, acceleration, light beams-which grown-ups find so commonplace. He retained the ability to hold two thoughts in his mind simultaneously, to be puzzled when they conflicted, and to marvel when he could smell an underlying unity. "People like you and me never grow old," he wrote a friend later in life. "We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.”
Steve Jobs Quote #41. “What was remarkable was that associating with a computer and electronics company was the best way for a rock band to seem hip and appeal to young people. Bono later explained that not all corporate sponsorships were deals with the devil. “Let’s have a look,” he told Greg Kot, the Chicago Tribune music critic. “The ‘devil’ here is a bunch of creative minds, more creative than a lot of people in rock bands. The lead singer is Steve Jobs. These men have helped design the most beautiful art object in music culture since the electric guitar. That’s the iPod. The job of art is to chase ugliness away.”
Steve Jobs Quote #42. “In a bravura demonstration of stonewalling, righteousness, and hurt sincerity, Steve Jobs successfully took to the stage the other day to deny the problem, dismiss the criticism, and spread the blame among other smartphone makers,” Michael Wolff of newser.com wrote. “This is a level of modern marketing, corporate spin, and crisis management about which you can only ask with stupefied incredulity and awe: How do they get away with it? Or, more accurately, how does he get away with it?” Wolff attributed it to Jobs’s mesmerizing effect as “the last charismatic individual.” Other CEOs would be offering abject apologies and swallowing massive recalls, but Jobs didn’t have to. “The grim, skeletal appearance, the absolutism, the ecclesiastical bearing, the sense of his relationship with the sacred, really works, and, in this instance, allows him the privilege of magisterially deciding what is meaningful and what is trivial.”
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thoughts, Quotes & Proverbs by Leonardo da Vinci
- Nothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.
- This empty fame issues from vices.
- A broken vase of clay can be remodelled, but this is no longer possible when it has been baked.
- The vow is born when hope dies.
- The beautiful is not always the good. And the fine talkers labour under this error without any reason.
- He who wishes to grow rich in a day will be hanged in a year.
- The memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.
- Reprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.
- He who fears dangers will not perish by them.
- The evil which does me no harm is like the good which in no wise avails me.
- He who offends others is not himself secure.
- Be not false about the past.
- Folly is the shield of lies, just as unreadiness is the defence of poverty.
- Where there is liberty, there is no rule.
- Here is a thing which the more it is heeded the more it is spurned,—advice.
- It is ill to praise, and worse to blame, the thing which you do not understand.
- On Mount Etna the words freeze in your mouth and you make ice of them.
- Threats are the only weapons of the threatened man.
- Ask advice of him who governs himself well.
- Justice needs power, intelligence and will, and is like the Queen Bee.
- Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.
- He who takes the snake by the tail will be bitten by it.
- The pit will fall in upon him who digs it.
- He who does not restrain voluptuousness is in the category of the beasts.
- You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.
- He who thinks little errs much.
- It is easier to contend at the first than at the last.
- No counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.
- Let him who acts on the advice of the young expect loss.
- You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child.
- Cannot beauty and utility be combined—as appears in citadels and men?
- He who is without fear often incurs great losses, and is often full of regret.
- If you governed your body according to virtue you would not live in this world.
- Where good fortune enters, envy lays siege to her and attacks her, and when she departs sorrow and regret remain behind.
- When beauty exists side by side with ugliness, the one seems more powerful, owing to the presence of the other.
- He who walks straight rarely falls.
- O miserable race of man! of how many things you make yourself the slave for the sake of money!
- The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.
- To speak well of a bad man is the same as speaking ill of a good man.
- Truth ordains that lying tongues shall be punished by the lie.
- He who does not value life does not deserve it.
- The beautiful works of mortals pass and do not endure.
- Labour flies with fame almost hidden in its arm.
- The gold in ingots is refined in the fire.
- The shuttle says: I will continue to move until the cloth is woven.
- Everything that is crooked is straightened.
- Great ruin proceeds from a slight cause.
- Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.
- The image will correspond to the die.
- The wall will fall on him who scrapes it.
- Ivy lives long.
- To the traitor, death is life, because if he makes use of others he is no longer believed.
- When fortune comes seize her in front firmly, because behind she is bald.
- Constancy means, not he who begins, but he who perseveres.
- I do not yield to obstacles.
- Every obstacle is overcome by resolve.
- He who is chained to a star does not change.
Thoughts, Quotes & Proverbs - Leonardo da Vinci
Courtesy of: The Top 5 of Everything Useful
172 Excellent Quotes from Thomas à Kempis
Courtesy of James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations, 1899 and
Library of Excellent Online Resources A+
Quote #1. All men commend patience, though few be willing to practise it.
Quote #2. Be not angry that you cannot make others what you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself what you wish to be.
Quote #3. Constantly choose rather to want less than to have more.
Quote #4. Faith is required at thy hands, and a sincere life, not loftiness of intellect or inquiry into the deep mysteries of God.
Quote #5. Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.
Quote #6. Fire trieth iron, and temptation a just man.
Quote #7. First keep thyself in peace, and then thou shalt be able to keep peace among others.
Quote #8. Flatter not the rich; neither do thou appear willingly before the great.
Quote #9. For as a ship without a helm is tossed to and fro by the waves so the man who is careless and forsaketh his purpose is many ways tempted.
Quote #10. Go whither thou wilt, thou shalt find no rest but in humble subjection to the government of a superior.
Quote #11. God deceiveth thee not.
Quote #12. God is able to do more than man can understand.
Quote #13. God is always ready to strengthen those who strive lawfully.
Quote #14. Grace is a light superior to Nature, which should direct and preside over it.
Quote #15. Grace pays its respects to true intrinsic worth, not to the mere signs and trappings of it, which often only show where it ought to be, not where it really is.
Quote #16. Happy he that can abandon everything by which his conscience is defiled or burdened.
Quote #17. He doeth much that doeth a thing well.
Quote #18. He doeth well that serveth the common good rather than his own will.
Quote #19. He is truly great who is great in charity.
Quote #20. He rideth easily enough whom the grace of God carrieth.
Quote #21. He that hath gained an entire conquest over himself will find no mighty difficulties to subdue all other opposition.
Quote #22. He that is discontented and troubled is tossed with divers suspicions; he is neither quiet himself, nor suffereth others to be quiet.
Quote #23. He that is well-ordered and disposed within himself careth not for the strange and perverse behaviour of men.
Quote #24. He that purposes to be happy by the affection or acquaintance of the best, the greatest man alive, will always find his mind unsettled and perplexed.
Quote #25. He who loves with purity considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver.
Quote #26. Homo fervidus et diligens ad omnia paratur—The man who is earnest and diligent is prepared for all things.
Quote #27. How foolish and absurd, nay, how hurtful and destructive a vice is ambition, which, by undue pursuit of honour, robs us of true honour!
Quote #28. How should he be easy who makes other men’s cares his own?
Quote #29. How should thy virtue be above the shocks and shakings of temptation, when even the angels kept not their first estate, and man in Paradise so soon fell from innocence?
Quote #30. Humility is a virtue of so general, so exceeding good influence, that we can scarce purchase it too dear.
Quote #31. If all be well within,… the impertinent censures of busy, envious men will make no very deep impression.
Quote #32. If thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee.
Quote #33. If thou canst let others alone in their matters, they likewise will not hinder thee in thine.
Quote #34. If thou cast away one cross, without doubt thou shalt find another, and that perhaps more heavy.
Quote #35. If thou wouldst profit by thy reading, read humbly, simply, honestly, and not desiring to win a character for learning.
Quote #36. If we bear what we must bear with murmuring and grudging, we do but gall our shoulders with the yoke, and render that a heavy unprofitable load which might be fruitful and glorious.
Quote #37. If we cast off one burden, we are immediately pursued and oppressed by another.
Quote #38. If we fail to conquer smaller difficulties, what will become of us when assaulted by greater?
Quote #39. If we would endeavour like brave men to stand in the battle, surely we should feel the assistance from Heaven.
Quote #40. If your mind and its affections be pure, and sincere, and moderate, nothing shall have the power to enslave you.
Quote #41. Impertinent and lavish talking is in itself a very vicious habit.
Quote #42. In all straits the good behave themselves with meekness and patience.
Quote #43. Is a man one whit the better because he is grown great in other men’s esteem?
Quote #44. Is common opinion the standard of merit?
Quote #45. It exalteth a man from earthly things to love those that are heavenly.
Quote #46. It is an argument of great wisdom to do nothing rashly, nor to be obstinate and inflexible in our opinions.
Quote #47. It is better to be affected with a true penitent sorrow for sin than to be able to resolve the most difficult cases about it.
Quote #48. It is better to cleanse ourselves of our sins now, than to reserve them to be cleansed at some future time.
Quote #49. It is harder work to resist vices and passions, than to toil in bodily labours.
Quote #50. It is much safer to obey than to govern.
Quote #51. It is of some consequence for a man to forego his own inclinations, even in matters of no great importance.
Quote #52. It is proper and beneficial sometimes to be left to thyself.
Quote #53. Keep company with the humble, with the devout, and with the virtuous; and confer with them of things that edify.
Quote #54. Keep thy mind always at its own disposal.
Quote #55. Lay not thine heart open to every one, but treat of thy affairs with the wise and such as fear God.
Quote #56. Lean not upon a broken reed, which will not only let thee fall, but pierce thy arm too.
Quote #57. Leave the great ones of the world to manage their own concerns, and keep your eyes and observations at home.
Quote #58. Let go desire, and thou shalt lay hold on peace.
Quote #59. Let go quarrel and contention, nor embroil thyself in trouble and differences by being over-solicitous in thy own defence.
Quote #60. Let it not be grievous to thee to humble and submit thyself to the capricious humours of men with whom thou conversest in this world, but rather … endure patiently whatever they shall, but should not, do to thee.
Quote #61. Let not the remembrance of thy former trials discourage thee.
Quote #62. Let the thing we do be what it will, it is the principle upon which we do it that must recommend it.
Quote #63. Let vain men pursue vanity; leave them to their own methods.
Quote #64. Love is eternally awake, never tired with labour, nor oppressed with affliction, nor discouraged by fear.
Quote #65. Love is swift, sincere, pious, pleasant, gentle, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, manly, and never seeking her own.
Quote #66. Many deceive themselves, imagining to find happiness in change.
Quote #67. Many men involve themselves deeper in temptations by being too solicitous to decline them.
Quote #68. Man’s own judgment is the proper rule and measure of his actions.
Quote #69. Melius est peccata cavere quam mortem fugere—It is better to avoid sin than to fly from death.
Quote #70. Men are much more prone (the greater is the pity) both to speak and believe ill than well of their neighbours.
Quote #71. Men might live quiet and easy enough, if they would be careful not to give themselves trouble, and forbear meddling with what other people do and say, in which they are in no way concerned.
Quote #72. Men who form their judgment upon sense often err.
Quote #73. Mistake not, man; the devil never sleeps.
Quote #74. Mortality is beset on every side with crosses, and exposed to suffering every moment.
Quote #75. Nature builds upon a false bottom, seeks herself what she values in others, and is oftentimes deceived and disappointed. Grace reposes her whole hope and love in God, and is never mistaken, never deluded by false expectations.
Quote #76. Nemo impetrare potest a papa bullam nunquam moriendi—No man can ever obtain from the Pope a dispensation from death.
Quote #77. No conflict is so severe as his who labours to subdue himself.
Quote #78. No man doth safely appear abroad but he who can abide at home.
Quote #79. No man doth safely rule but he that hath learned gladly to obey.
Quote #80. No man doth safely speak but he who is glad to hold his peace.
Quote #81. No man is so happy as never to give offence.
Quote #82. No man is so sufficient as never to need assistance.
Quote #83. No man is without his load of trouble.
Quote #84. No one is qualified to converse in public who is not highly contented without such conversation.
Quote #85. No one is qualified to entertain, or receive entertainment from others, who cannot entertain himself alone with satisfaction.
Quote #86. No order or profession of men is so sacred, no place so remote or solitary, but that temptations and troubles will find them out and intrude upon them.
Quote #87. No, not even faith, or hope, or any other virtue, is accepted by God without charity and grace.
Quote #88. Nobody can continue easy in his own mind who does not endeavour to become least of all and servant of all.
Quote #89. None so wise but the advice of others may, at some time or other, be useful and necessary for him.
Quote #90. Nor can either thy own resentment of misfortunes within, or the violence of any calamity without, give thee sufficient grounds, from the terrible face thy present circumstances wear, to pronounce that all hope of escape and better days are past.
Quote #91. Nothing is more common than to express exceeding zeal in amending our neighbours,… while at the same time we neglect the beginning at home.
Quote #92. Observe this short but certain aphorism, “Forsake all, and thou shalt find all.”
Quote #93. Occasions do not make a man frail, but they show what he is.
Quote #94. Oh! the dulness and the hardness of the heart of man, which contemplates only the present, and does not rather provide for the future.
Quote #95. Order all thy actions, so as readily and meekly to comply with the commands of thy superiors, the desires of thy equals, the requests of thy inferiors; so to do for all what thou lawfully mayest.
Quote #96. Our charity indeed should be universal, and extend to all mankind; but it is by no means convenient that our friendships and familiarities should do so too.
Quote #97. Out of sight out of mind.
Quote #98. Pass no rash censure upon other people’s words or actions.
Quote #99. Praise is indeed the consequence and encouragement of virtue; but it is sometimes so unseasonably applied as to become its bane and corruption too.
Quote #100. Private affection bereaves us easily of a right judgment.
Quote #101. Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature. Simplicity is in the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God; purity unites with and enjoys Him.
Quote #102. Quicken yourself up to duty by the remembrance of your station, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.
Quote #103. Quicquid agas, prudenter agas, et respice finem—Whatever you do, do it with intelligence, and keep the end in view.
Quote #104. Quit thyself manfully; banish impatience and distrust.
Quote #105. Regard not much who is for thee or who against thee; but give all thy care to this, that God be with thee in everything thou doest.
Quote #106. Remember that the time once yours can never be so again.
Quote #107. Remember thy prerogative is to govern, and not to serve, the things of this world.
Quote #108. Repose and happiness is what thou covetest, but these are only to be obtained by labour.
Quote #109. Rest and undisturbed content have now no place on earth, nor can the greatest affluence of worldly good procure them,… they are peculiar to the love and fruition of God alone.
Quote #110. Run here or there, thou wilt find no rest, but in humble subjection to the government of a superior.
Quote #111. Scruples, temptations, and fears, and cutting perplexities of heart, are frequently the lot of the most excellent persons.
Quote #112. Seek one good, one end, so zealously, that nothing else may come into competition or partnership with it.
Quote #113. Simplicity is in the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him.
Quote #114. Slander and detraction can have no influence, can make no impression, upon the righteous Judge above. None to thy prejudice, but a sad and fatal one to their own.
Quote #115. Speak not peace to thyself when beset on every side with numerous and restless enemies.
Quote #116. Stain (blemish) not thy innocence by too deep resentment, nor take off from the brightness of thy crown by anger and impatience and eagerness to right thyself.
Quote #117. Stand up bravely to afflictions, and quit thyself like a man.
Quote #118. Study to be quiet; contain yourself within your own business, and let the prying, censorious, the vain and intriguing world follow their own devices.
Quote #119. Such as every one is inwardly, so he judgeth outwardly.
Quote #120. Suffer no hour to slide by without its due improvement.
Quote #121. That intention which fixes upon God as its only end will keep men steady in their purposes, and deliver them from being the jest and scorn of fortune.
Quote #122. That learning which thou gettest by thy own observation and experience is far beyond that which thou gettest by precept; as the knowledge of a traveller exceeds that which is got by reading.
Quote #123. The Lord bestoweth his blessings where he findeth the vessels empty.
Quote #124. The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step towards repairing our loss.
Quote #125. The beginning of all temptations and wickedness is the fickleness of our own minds and want of trust in God.
Quote #126. The better you understand yourself, the less cause you will find to love yourself.
Quote #127. The chancre of a man’s self is a very laborious undertaking.
Quote #128. The enemy is more easily repulsed if we never suffer him to get within us, but, upon the very first approach, draw up our forces and fight him without the gate.
Quote #129. The highest in God’s esteem are meanest in their own.
Quote #130. The joy of a peaceful conscience is sown in tears.
Quote #131. The kingdom of God does not lie in elegance of speech or fineness of parts, but in innocence of life and good works.
Quote #132. The loftier the building the deeper must the foundation be laid.
Quote #133. The nobler the virtue is, the more eager and generous resolution do thou express of attaining to it.
Quote #134. The opinions of men are as many and as different as their persons; the greatest diligence and most prudent conduct can never please them all.
Quote #135. The true original ground of all disquiet is within.
Quote #136. The way to heaven is set with briars and thorns; and they who arrive at the kingdom travel over craggy rocks and comfortless deserts.
Quote #137. The wealth of both the Indies cannot redeem one single opportunity which you have once let slip.
Quote #138. There can come no harm of supposing every other man better than yourself; but the supposing any man worse than yourself may be attended with very ill consequences.
Quote #139. They who accuse and blacken thee wrongfully are much the greatest sufferers by their own malice and injustice.
Quote #140. They who sustain their cross shall likewise be sustained by it in return.
Quote #141. Things fasten upon thee only according as the degree of thy own love and inclination for them gives opportunity and advantage.
Quote #142. Thou art ignorant of what thou art, and much more ignorant of what is fit for thee.
Quote #143. Thou canst not be entirely free till thou hast attained to such a mastery as entirely to subdue and deny thyself.
Quote #144. Thou must learn to break thine own will in many things if thou wilt have peace and concord with others.
Quote #145. Though peace be in every man’s wishes, yet the qualifications and predispositions necessary for procuring and preserving it are the care of very few.
Quote #146. To be ill thought of is sometimes for thy good,… if thou seek not thy own glory, but His that sent thee, the affliction will not be very grievous to be borne.
Quote #147. To be provoked with every slanderous word argues a littleness of soul, a want of due regard to God.
Quote #148. Too many instances there are of daring men, who by presuming to sound the deep things of religion, have cavilled and argued themselves out of all religion.
Quote #149. True quietness of heart is gotten by resisting our passions, not by obeying them.
Quote #150. Upon every occasion, be sure to make a conscience of what you do or say.
Quote #151. We are all best affected to them who are of the same opinion as ourselves.
Quote #152. We are all frail; but esteem none more frail than thyself.
Quote #153. We know not oftentimes what we are able to do, but temptations shows us what we are.
Quote #154. We must not suppose ourselves always to have conquered a temptation when we have fled from it.
Quote #155. We must sometimes cease to adhere to our own opinion for the sake of peace.
Quote #156. We should be sparing in our intimacies; because it so very often happens that the more perfectly men are understood, the less they are esteemed.
Quote #157. We take a pleasure in being severe upon others, but cannot endure to hear of our own faults.
Quote #158. We will have others severely corrected, and will not be corrected ourselves.
Quote #159. What are words but empty sounds, that break and scatter in the air, and make no real impression?
Quote #160. What is more at ease, more abstracted from the world, than a true single-hearted honesty?
Quote #161. When you find yourselves tempted, be sure to ask advice; and when you see another so, deal with him gently.
Quote #162. Whensoever a man desireth anything inordinately, he is presently disquieted in himself.
Quote #163. Wheresoever a man seeketh his own, there he falleth from love.
Quote #164. Who hath a greater combat than he that laboureth to overcome himself?
Quote #165. Why should thy satisfaction be placed upon a thing which makes thee not one whit the better or the worse?
Quote #166. Without the way there is no going; without the truth, no knowing; without the life, no living.
Quote #167. Would we but quit ourselves like men, and resolutely stand our ground, we should not fail of succours from above.
Quote #168. Your own soul is the thing you ought to look after.
Quote #169. Your own words and actions are the only things you will be called to account for.
Quote #170. ’Tis certainly much easier for a man to restrain himself from talking at all, than to enter into discourse without saying more than becomes him.
Quote #171. ’Tis rashness to conclude affairs in a lost condition because some crosses have baulked your expectations.
Quote #172. “If the Lord tarry, yet wait for Him,” for He “will surely come” and heal thee.
172 Excellent Quotes from Thomas à Kempis
Courtesy of James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations, 1899 and
Library of Excellent Online Resources A+
Library of Excellent Online Resources A+
Quote #1. All men commend patience, though few be willing to practise it.
Quote #2. Be not angry that you cannot make others what you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself what you wish to be.
Quote #3. Constantly choose rather to want less than to have more.
Quote #4. Faith is required at thy hands, and a sincere life, not loftiness of intellect or inquiry into the deep mysteries of God.
Quote #5. Few spirits are made better by the pain and languor of sickness; as few great pilgrims become eminent saints.
Quote #6. Fire trieth iron, and temptation a just man.
Quote #7. First keep thyself in peace, and then thou shalt be able to keep peace among others.
Quote #8. Flatter not the rich; neither do thou appear willingly before the great.
Quote #9. For as a ship without a helm is tossed to and fro by the waves so the man who is careless and forsaketh his purpose is many ways tempted.
Quote #10. Go whither thou wilt, thou shalt find no rest but in humble subjection to the government of a superior.
Quote #11. God deceiveth thee not.
Quote #12. God is able to do more than man can understand.
Quote #13. God is always ready to strengthen those who strive lawfully.
Quote #14. Grace is a light superior to Nature, which should direct and preside over it.
Quote #15. Grace pays its respects to true intrinsic worth, not to the mere signs and trappings of it, which often only show where it ought to be, not where it really is.
Quote #16. Happy he that can abandon everything by which his conscience is defiled or burdened.
Quote #17. He doeth much that doeth a thing well.
Quote #18. He doeth well that serveth the common good rather than his own will.
Quote #19. He is truly great who is great in charity.
Quote #20. He rideth easily enough whom the grace of God carrieth.
Quote #21. He that hath gained an entire conquest over himself will find no mighty difficulties to subdue all other opposition.
Quote #22. He that is discontented and troubled is tossed with divers suspicions; he is neither quiet himself, nor suffereth others to be quiet.
Quote #23. He that is well-ordered and disposed within himself careth not for the strange and perverse behaviour of men.
Quote #24. He that purposes to be happy by the affection or acquaintance of the best, the greatest man alive, will always find his mind unsettled and perplexed.
Quote #25. He who loves with purity considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver.
Quote #26. Homo fervidus et diligens ad omnia paratur—The man who is earnest and diligent is prepared for all things.
Quote #27. How foolish and absurd, nay, how hurtful and destructive a vice is ambition, which, by undue pursuit of honour, robs us of true honour!
Quote #28. How should he be easy who makes other men’s cares his own?
Quote #29. How should thy virtue be above the shocks and shakings of temptation, when even the angels kept not their first estate, and man in Paradise so soon fell from innocence?
Quote #30. Humility is a virtue of so general, so exceeding good influence, that we can scarce purchase it too dear.
Quote #31. If all be well within,… the impertinent censures of busy, envious men will make no very deep impression.
Quote #32. If thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee.
Quote #33. If thou canst let others alone in their matters, they likewise will not hinder thee in thine.
Quote #34. If thou cast away one cross, without doubt thou shalt find another, and that perhaps more heavy.
Quote #35. If thou wouldst profit by thy reading, read humbly, simply, honestly, and not desiring to win a character for learning.
Quote #36. If we bear what we must bear with murmuring and grudging, we do but gall our shoulders with the yoke, and render that a heavy unprofitable load which might be fruitful and glorious.
Quote #37. If we cast off one burden, we are immediately pursued and oppressed by another.
Quote #38. If we fail to conquer smaller difficulties, what will become of us when assaulted by greater?
Quote #39. If we would endeavour like brave men to stand in the battle, surely we should feel the assistance from Heaven.
Quote #40. If your mind and its affections be pure, and sincere, and moderate, nothing shall have the power to enslave you.
Quote #41. Impertinent and lavish talking is in itself a very vicious habit.
Quote #42. In all straits the good behave themselves with meekness and patience.
Quote #43. Is a man one whit the better because he is grown great in other men’s esteem?
Quote #44. Is common opinion the standard of merit?
Quote #45. It exalteth a man from earthly things to love those that are heavenly.
Quote #46. It is an argument of great wisdom to do nothing rashly, nor to be obstinate and inflexible in our opinions.
Quote #47. It is better to be affected with a true penitent sorrow for sin than to be able to resolve the most difficult cases about it.
Quote #48. It is better to cleanse ourselves of our sins now, than to reserve them to be cleansed at some future time.
Quote #49. It is harder work to resist vices and passions, than to toil in bodily labours.
Quote #50. It is much safer to obey than to govern.
Quote #51. It is of some consequence for a man to forego his own inclinations, even in matters of no great importance.
Quote #52. It is proper and beneficial sometimes to be left to thyself.
Quote #53. Keep company with the humble, with the devout, and with the virtuous; and confer with them of things that edify.
Quote #54. Keep thy mind always at its own disposal.
Quote #55. Lay not thine heart open to every one, but treat of thy affairs with the wise and such as fear God.
Quote #56. Lean not upon a broken reed, which will not only let thee fall, but pierce thy arm too.
Quote #57. Leave the great ones of the world to manage their own concerns, and keep your eyes and observations at home.
Quote #58. Let go desire, and thou shalt lay hold on peace.
Quote #59. Let go quarrel and contention, nor embroil thyself in trouble and differences by being over-solicitous in thy own defence.
Quote #60. Let it not be grievous to thee to humble and submit thyself to the capricious humours of men with whom thou conversest in this world, but rather … endure patiently whatever they shall, but should not, do to thee.
Quote #61. Let not the remembrance of thy former trials discourage thee.
Quote #62. Let the thing we do be what it will, it is the principle upon which we do it that must recommend it.
Quote #63. Let vain men pursue vanity; leave them to their own methods.
Quote #64. Love is eternally awake, never tired with labour, nor oppressed with affliction, nor discouraged by fear.
Quote #65. Love is swift, sincere, pious, pleasant, gentle, strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, manly, and never seeking her own.
Quote #66. Many deceive themselves, imagining to find happiness in change.
Quote #67. Many men involve themselves deeper in temptations by being too solicitous to decline them.
Quote #68. Man’s own judgment is the proper rule and measure of his actions.
Quote #69. Melius est peccata cavere quam mortem fugere—It is better to avoid sin than to fly from death.
Quote #70. Men are much more prone (the greater is the pity) both to speak and believe ill than well of their neighbours.
Quote #71. Men might live quiet and easy enough, if they would be careful not to give themselves trouble, and forbear meddling with what other people do and say, in which they are in no way concerned.
Quote #72. Men who form their judgment upon sense often err.
Quote #73. Mistake not, man; the devil never sleeps.
Quote #74. Mortality is beset on every side with crosses, and exposed to suffering every moment.
Quote #75. Nature builds upon a false bottom, seeks herself what she values in others, and is oftentimes deceived and disappointed. Grace reposes her whole hope and love in God, and is never mistaken, never deluded by false expectations.
Quote #76. Nemo impetrare potest a papa bullam nunquam moriendi—No man can ever obtain from the Pope a dispensation from death.
Quote #77. No conflict is so severe as his who labours to subdue himself.
Quote #78. No man doth safely appear abroad but he who can abide at home.
Quote #79. No man doth safely rule but he that hath learned gladly to obey.
Quote #80. No man doth safely speak but he who is glad to hold his peace.
Quote #81. No man is so happy as never to give offence.
Quote #82. No man is so sufficient as never to need assistance.
Quote #83. No man is without his load of trouble.
Quote #84. No one is qualified to converse in public who is not highly contented without such conversation.
Quote #85. No one is qualified to entertain, or receive entertainment from others, who cannot entertain himself alone with satisfaction.
Quote #86. No order or profession of men is so sacred, no place so remote or solitary, but that temptations and troubles will find them out and intrude upon them.
Quote #87. No, not even faith, or hope, or any other virtue, is accepted by God without charity and grace.
Quote #88. Nobody can continue easy in his own mind who does not endeavour to become least of all and servant of all.
Quote #89. None so wise but the advice of others may, at some time or other, be useful and necessary for him.
Quote #90. Nor can either thy own resentment of misfortunes within, or the violence of any calamity without, give thee sufficient grounds, from the terrible face thy present circumstances wear, to pronounce that all hope of escape and better days are past.
Quote #91. Nothing is more common than to express exceeding zeal in amending our neighbours,… while at the same time we neglect the beginning at home.
Quote #92. Observe this short but certain aphorism, “Forsake all, and thou shalt find all.”
Quote #93. Occasions do not make a man frail, but they show what he is.
Quote #94. Oh! the dulness and the hardness of the heart of man, which contemplates only the present, and does not rather provide for the future.
Quote #95. Order all thy actions, so as readily and meekly to comply with the commands of thy superiors, the desires of thy equals, the requests of thy inferiors; so to do for all what thou lawfully mayest.
Quote #96. Our charity indeed should be universal, and extend to all mankind; but it is by no means convenient that our friendships and familiarities should do so too.
Quote #97. Out of sight out of mind.
Quote #98. Pass no rash censure upon other people’s words or actions.
Quote #99. Praise is indeed the consequence and encouragement of virtue; but it is sometimes so unseasonably applied as to become its bane and corruption too.
Quote #100. Private affection bereaves us easily of a right judgment.
Quote #101. Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature. Simplicity is in the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God; purity unites with and enjoys Him.
Quote #102. Quicken yourself up to duty by the remembrance of your station, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.
Quote #103. Quicquid agas, prudenter agas, et respice finem—Whatever you do, do it with intelligence, and keep the end in view.
Quote #104. Quit thyself manfully; banish impatience and distrust.
Quote #105. Regard not much who is for thee or who against thee; but give all thy care to this, that God be with thee in everything thou doest.
Quote #106. Remember that the time once yours can never be so again.
Quote #107. Remember thy prerogative is to govern, and not to serve, the things of this world.
Quote #108. Repose and happiness is what thou covetest, but these are only to be obtained by labour.
Quote #109. Rest and undisturbed content have now no place on earth, nor can the greatest affluence of worldly good procure them,… they are peculiar to the love and fruition of God alone.
Quote #110. Run here or there, thou wilt find no rest, but in humble subjection to the government of a superior.
Quote #111. Scruples, temptations, and fears, and cutting perplexities of heart, are frequently the lot of the most excellent persons.
Quote #112. Seek one good, one end, so zealously, that nothing else may come into competition or partnership with it.
Quote #113. Simplicity is in the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him.
Quote #114. Slander and detraction can have no influence, can make no impression, upon the righteous Judge above. None to thy prejudice, but a sad and fatal one to their own.
Quote #115. Speak not peace to thyself when beset on every side with numerous and restless enemies.
Quote #116. Stain (blemish) not thy innocence by too deep resentment, nor take off from the brightness of thy crown by anger and impatience and eagerness to right thyself.
Quote #117. Stand up bravely to afflictions, and quit thyself like a man.
Quote #118. Study to be quiet; contain yourself within your own business, and let the prying, censorious, the vain and intriguing world follow their own devices.
Quote #119. Such as every one is inwardly, so he judgeth outwardly.
Quote #120. Suffer no hour to slide by without its due improvement.
Quote #121. That intention which fixes upon God as its only end will keep men steady in their purposes, and deliver them from being the jest and scorn of fortune.
Quote #122. That learning which thou gettest by thy own observation and experience is far beyond that which thou gettest by precept; as the knowledge of a traveller exceeds that which is got by reading.
Quote #123. The Lord bestoweth his blessings where he findeth the vessels empty.
Quote #124. The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step towards repairing our loss.
Quote #125. The beginning of all temptations and wickedness is the fickleness of our own minds and want of trust in God.
Quote #126. The better you understand yourself, the less cause you will find to love yourself.
Quote #127. The chancre of a man’s self is a very laborious undertaking.
Quote #128. The enemy is more easily repulsed if we never suffer him to get within us, but, upon the very first approach, draw up our forces and fight him without the gate.
Quote #129. The highest in God’s esteem are meanest in their own.
Quote #130. The joy of a peaceful conscience is sown in tears.
Quote #131. The kingdom of God does not lie in elegance of speech or fineness of parts, but in innocence of life and good works.
Quote #132. The loftier the building the deeper must the foundation be laid.
Quote #133. The nobler the virtue is, the more eager and generous resolution do thou express of attaining to it.
Quote #134. The opinions of men are as many and as different as their persons; the greatest diligence and most prudent conduct can never please them all.
Quote #135. The true original ground of all disquiet is within.
Quote #136. The way to heaven is set with briars and thorns; and they who arrive at the kingdom travel over craggy rocks and comfortless deserts.
Quote #137. The wealth of both the Indies cannot redeem one single opportunity which you have once let slip.
Quote #138. There can come no harm of supposing every other man better than yourself; but the supposing any man worse than yourself may be attended with very ill consequences.
Quote #139. They who accuse and blacken thee wrongfully are much the greatest sufferers by their own malice and injustice.
Quote #140. They who sustain their cross shall likewise be sustained by it in return.
Quote #141. Things fasten upon thee only according as the degree of thy own love and inclination for them gives opportunity and advantage.
Quote #142. Thou art ignorant of what thou art, and much more ignorant of what is fit for thee.
Quote #143. Thou canst not be entirely free till thou hast attained to such a mastery as entirely to subdue and deny thyself.
Quote #144. Thou must learn to break thine own will in many things if thou wilt have peace and concord with others.
Quote #145. Though peace be in every man’s wishes, yet the qualifications and predispositions necessary for procuring and preserving it are the care of very few.
Quote #146. To be ill thought of is sometimes for thy good,… if thou seek not thy own glory, but His that sent thee, the affliction will not be very grievous to be borne.
Quote #147. To be provoked with every slanderous word argues a littleness of soul, a want of due regard to God.
Quote #148. Too many instances there are of daring men, who by presuming to sound the deep things of religion, have cavilled and argued themselves out of all religion.
Quote #149. True quietness of heart is gotten by resisting our passions, not by obeying them.
Quote #150. Upon every occasion, be sure to make a conscience of what you do or say.
Quote #151. We are all best affected to them who are of the same opinion as ourselves.
Quote #152. We are all frail; but esteem none more frail than thyself.
Quote #153. We know not oftentimes what we are able to do, but temptations shows us what we are.
Quote #154. We must not suppose ourselves always to have conquered a temptation when we have fled from it.
Quote #155. We must sometimes cease to adhere to our own opinion for the sake of peace.
Quote #156. We should be sparing in our intimacies; because it so very often happens that the more perfectly men are understood, the less they are esteemed.
Quote #157. We take a pleasure in being severe upon others, but cannot endure to hear of our own faults.
Quote #158. We will have others severely corrected, and will not be corrected ourselves.
Quote #159. What are words but empty sounds, that break and scatter in the air, and make no real impression?
Quote #160. What is more at ease, more abstracted from the world, than a true single-hearted honesty?
Quote #161. When you find yourselves tempted, be sure to ask advice; and when you see another so, deal with him gently.
Quote #162. Whensoever a man desireth anything inordinately, he is presently disquieted in himself.
Quote #163. Wheresoever a man seeketh his own, there he falleth from love.
Quote #164. Who hath a greater combat than he that laboureth to overcome himself?
Quote #165. Why should thy satisfaction be placed upon a thing which makes thee not one whit the better or the worse?
Quote #166. Without the way there is no going; without the truth, no knowing; without the life, no living.
Quote #167. Would we but quit ourselves like men, and resolutely stand our ground, we should not fail of succours from above.
Quote #168. Your own soul is the thing you ought to look after.
Quote #169. Your own words and actions are the only things you will be called to account for.
Quote #170. ’Tis certainly much easier for a man to restrain himself from talking at all, than to enter into discourse without saying more than becomes him.
Quote #171. ’Tis rashness to conclude affairs in a lost condition because some crosses have baulked your expectations.
Quote #172. “If the Lord tarry, yet wait for Him,” for He “will surely come” and heal thee.
172 Excellent Quotes from Thomas à Kempis
Courtesy of James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations, 1899 and
Library of Excellent Online Resources A+
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)